Daily Mail, 20 February 2002, by Peter Paterson. "Oldest sinners in town." ----------------------------------------------------------- Not a question of young men behaving badly in last night's new comedydrama, *Manchild*, so much as middleaged men behaving with cold-hearted selfishness. Writer Nick Fisher's four characters, all on the cusp of 50, form an obvious stylistic parallel with the thirtysomething girls in *Sex and the City*. But Fisher's vain old codgers can hardly compete in relationship, sex and fashion chat with the feisty female New Yorkers, although they might have an edge when it comes to motorbikes. The comparison is odious, anyway, because there is something grotesque and off-putting in the sheer vanity of the codgers. And while there are moments when they send themselves up, this is not at all the same thing as irony, which is the missing ingredient in *Manchild*. Nigel Havers plays Terry, leader of a pack of chums who all fancy themselves like mad - he most of all. Then tend to patronise Gary (Ray Burdis) because he's the only one still in a marriage, suddenly wealthy - he's inherited a timber firm at the height of the decking craze - and longing for a bit on the side as long as Cheryl (Lindsey Coulson), his wife of 26 years, doesn't find out. Patrick (Don Warrington), their black friend, has never married, and is a rich antiques dealer - Beatles memorabilia is one of his specialities - though we have yet to discover whether he is gay. And the remaining musketeer is James, a retired dentist played by Anthony Head, who finds that a sudden, embarrassing physical incapacity is ruining the wideranging love life he thinks his money and his looks entitle him to after years of plodding dentistry. The biggest snag with *Manchild* is Terry's pompous, hectoring voiceover as he dispenses his boorish philosophy. He started with a reach-me-down version of Shakespeare's Seven Ages of Man speech, omitting most of the Bard's categories. Terry's verson: "In a man's life, his teens are a hormone- filled quest for sex; 20s - finding a wife and a career; 30s - making serious money; 40s - unpicking the unholy mess marriage, families and work have made of your life. "But time it right, and your 50s can once again be a fulltime, fullon, hedonistic quest for pleasure." If there were a Society for the Encouragement of Divorce, Terry would be its spokesman. When a man reaches his 50s, he declared, "the most timely, lifeaffirming change he can make is divorce." But not any old divorce. Terry produced a survey suggesting that a majority of divorced men aged over 40 marry again within two years and start a new family. "Have you any idea of the physical, not to mention financial, consequences a second marriage can do to a man in his 40s" he shuddered. Although Terry and his friends constantly boast of their charm, as well as their wealth and (as they see it) youthful looks, charm is what is singularly lacking among them. Take Terry's comparison of marriage with the stock market - because, he said, you have to know when to get in and when to get out, with divorce allowing a man to "squeeze every last drop of joy," from his wife, get the children off to university, pay off his mortgage, and then "unload his shares and move on to a new range of exciting investment opportunities." Nor was it particularly charming of the misogynistic Terry, dining with his ex-wife and discussing their daughter's forthcoming marriage, to ogle a girl at a neighboring table, provoking the wife sarcastically to invite him to go over and chat her up directly. Who knows, with six more episodes to come, *Manchild* could turn out to be a hoot - but I doubt it. And however gloomy I might feel at another comedy failure by the BBC, it's as nothing to the fury a number of famous motorcycle manufacturers will be feeling this morning over Terry's libellous disparagement of their products. [.....] ----------------------------------------------------------- Bentley's Bedlam http://www.BetsyDa.com/bedlam.html This website is for information and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by others.